Karen Xie

Hawrylczak Pd. 3
Loeb and Leopold Annotations
Due 11/5/18

May 22, 1944, 14 year old Bobby Frank's body is found after he is missing from the day before.
He was bludgeoned to death, acid poured on face to disfigure and hide his identity.

Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold were 2 wealthy college students who murdered a boy,
played it off as a kidnapping and ransom who killed because they wanted to see if they could
get away with it. The privilege of these men and their unclear motive, spurred by the thrill of
murder, makes this a compelling story that references trends in America. Their white, wealthy
privileges helped them in the court case.
Frank's body was found with glasses not belonging to him, and these eyeglasses ruled out the
suspects, and were traced back to Nathan Leopold.
Leopold was studying in law school, the son from a prominent family worth well over $4 million.

His alibi was that he and Loeb drove around and picked up girls during the night. During his
interrogation, his house was ransacked and a note was found insinuating a gay relationship
between the two, conflicting with his alibi.

Prosecutor Robert Crowe found this circumstantial evidence suspicious. The ransom note was
found by forensic experts to be drawn to Leopold. The alibi was found to be faulty because the
car they were in that night was in the shop.

Loeb confessed to Crowe, who gives this information to Leopold, and this interrogation
confesses the two boys to the crime (even with wealth, they didn't have a lawyer during this
interrogation)

They typed out the ransom note before choosing a victim, rented a car, and saw Bobby Franks,
the cousin of Loeb. Franks is invited into the car, and is bludgeoned to death with a chisel, and
suffocated with a rag in his mouth. They pour acid over his face and genitals to obscure his
identity, and leave him in the storm drain where he was found.

The fact that these two individuals gave a tour and revealed nearly everything about their crime,
as if they were prideful in their planning. Crowe labeled this premeditated murder, and wanted
justice delivered.

This story was on the front page of Chicago, and given so much media attention that it was
written in the New York Times for 3 or 4 months following it. These 2 arrogant young men
chattered to reporters, and stated they did it because they could. They didn't have remorse, and
Leopold justified his death and compared it to the impaling of a beetle by an entomologist. This
disturbing behavior highlighted the corrupted justice system that benefitted both of these
comfortable Jewish households.

Richard Loeb was a gypsy that commanded attention when he walked in a room. Nathan
Leopold was a dark, mysterious figure that fell in love with Loeb. Perhaps Loeb liked the
attention and ego-feeding Leopold gave to him. Richard was fascinated with crime, and his
belief that he wasn't in the common run in humanity encouraged him to make a sexual
arrangement in exchange for a crime parter. Loeb urges Leopold to carry out a murder. Their
intellectual and erotic dimensions to their relationships can even be viewed in images of the two
on Google.

After they were imprisoned, the families of the two hire an attorney, Clarence Darrow, who
fought for a life sentence instead of capital punishment. He believed people acted the way they
acted because of a traumatising upbringing, and believed in free choice, not free will. Because
they were so well brought up and well equipped, these tipping of the scales gave Darrow a
spotlight to shine as a hero in their case.

Leopold's first impression of Darrow, a shambling mess, was met with humor and confusion
because the two were well dressed. They were called to be analyzed by psychiatrists, to cancel
the strongest argument Darrow had, that they were mentally ill. They were found to be sane,
and the newest Freudian techniques had them tested in every way possible.

The overindulgence, stupidity, and ignorance of this new American generation made the
masses call for their hanging. Darrow pleads guilty, changing the game, and gives the judges
the decision to hang or imprison these criminals for life.

Crowe introduces 80+ witnesses that reinstated their guilt, and Darrow didn't cross-witness and
stayed silent in the court. Loeb and Leopold were noted to be laughing in court, and not fitting to
be acting this way in a case that would be a block in their lives. Many witnesses labelled them
delusional, traumatized, and messed up.

Loeb being the mastermind and Leopold being the slave, were argued to be emotionally stunted
because of parent rejection. Leopold was admitted to being sexually abused by his governors
as a child, and Loeb was compared to a boy holding his teddy bear. Darrow built on the pity that
should be raised for these men-children that have been sheltered their whole lives, and offered
a new perspective of faults. It was compelling and Freudian that convinced the people of
motivations, flaws, triggers in human beings rather than good and bad.

Darrow, giving his possible last stand, affects the courtroom in a seductive, emotional, different
way. The Loeb and Leopold case is one that brings up the topic of "affluenza", and reminded
everyone in the case that the two 19 year old men were still children committing this murder.
With his great capture of the law, he asked to make room for the future, and created tears in
everyone's eyes.
Judge Cavalier, giving the verdict to a guilty plea, sent the two to prison on the rule that they
were not of full age. He clung to the legal precedent of not giving them the death sentence
because they were not matured. They were given a life sentence in prison, plus 99 years for the
boy's life.

Darrow led a campaign to stop capital punishment, while Loeb and Leopold have their last good
meal.

Leopold was released in 1958 had been in prison for more than 33 years, and Loeb was
murdered in prison because of unwanted sexual conduct that he committed. Darrow died
decades earlier, and their case interrogates the idea of evil and captivated the US with this idea
of the "perfect crime" being committed by people in a specific position. It called to their
capabilities and was a fault of human being that a lot of us would be capable of committing.